Application and system settings configuration filtering during physical to virtual hard disk conversion

ABSTRACT

During conversion and transfer of data from a physical machine to a virtual hard disk, a transmuter generates a catalog of contents of the physical machine. Catalog entries are compared to a set of alterations templates which alter matching data. The altered data is then stored in the virtual hard disk. Alterations templates may include filters that exclude unwanted or duplicated catalog entries, mapping filters that transfer source catalog entries to target locations on the virtual hard disk, and add-on filters that add additional data or location references to catalog entries. The disclosed process allows modifications to be made in a systematic way during data transfer.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/469,240 filed May 20, 2009 entitled APPLICATION AND SYSTEM SETTINGSCONFIGURATION FILTERING DURING PHYSICAL TO VIRTUAL HARD DISK CONVERSIONissued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,465,540 on Oct. 11, 2016, the entire contentsare incorporated herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This disclosure relates to the provision of virtual hard disks and inparticular to the transfer of data from a physical machine to a virtualhard disk.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advent of high-speed communications has seen greater transport ofdata. One advantage of high speed data is that data may be stored in acentral, secure location and provided on demand to remote or localphysical machines. Applications have been developed that provision avirtual hard disk on a secure server that allow a user to interact witha hard disk in a manner that emulates the operating system of a typicalphysical machine.

Typically, when a physical machine is implemented as a virtual machine,the entire contents of the physical machine are copied first. If a userdesires to make configuration changes, these must be done after theconversion of the physical machine to the virtual machine. This can beparticularly cumbersome where multiple physical machines are to beimplemented as virtual machines.

Many physical machines fail to meet virtualization requirements becausethey either fail to meet security requirements or the pre-configurationcost is higher than creating a new virtual machine. For example, thesource machine could have excessive temporary data that would increaseconversion time and network bandwidth utilization.

What is required, is a system, method and computer readable medium thatprovides greater flexibility and efficiency for converting physicalmachine systems to virtual machines.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a method fortransferring data from a physical machine to a virtual hard disk. Themethod comprises receiving the data from a physical machine, comparingthe data to at least one alterations template, altering the data inaccordance with the at least one alterations template, and storing thealtered data in a virtual hard disk.

In one aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a system for storingdata of a physical machine in a virtual hard disk format. The systemcomprises at least one transmuter and at least one datastore that storesa plurality of filtering parameters. The transmuter is configured toconvert physical hard disk data to virtual hard disk data in accordancewith the plurality of filtering parameters.

In one aspect of the disclosure, there is provided a computer-readablemedium comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by aprocessor, that, when executed, cause a first processor to receivecontents of a physical hard disk, transform the contents in accordancewith one or more alterations templates, and transfer the transformedcontents to a virtual hard disk.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will now be made, by way of example only, to specificembodiments and to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for transferring data from a physicalmachine to a virtual hard disk;

FIG. 2 illustrates a method for transferring data from a physicalmachine to a virtual hard disk;

FIG. 3 illustrates a method for cataloging and altering physical machinecontents;

FIG. 4 illustrates a processor and memory of a machine that executes atransmuter application;

FIG. 5 illustrates an instruction set that may be executed on theprocessor and memory of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 illustrates the processor and memory of FIG. 4 in associationwith a processor and memory of a physical machine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1 there is shown a system 10 for converting a plurality ofphysical machines 12 into a plurality of virtual hard disks 16. In thesystem 10, the conversion of the physical hard disk data to virtual harddisk data is performed by a transmuter 14. The transmuter 14 is acentralized computer process performed on a physical machine such as amachine operating as a virtual network host. The transmuter 14 receivesincoming data from a physical machine 12 and converts it to a virtualhard disk format.

In one embodiment, the transmuter 14 performs additional operations onthe incoming data such as filtering, altering or appending newinformation. The additional operations may be driven by one or morealterations templates stored in the transmuter 14 or an associated datastorage 15. Alteration templates may be created by a management console.For example, while selecting a source and target, the alterationstemplates may be selected from a template pool which providespre-configured settings which the administrator can modify. Changes caninclude additional file filters (for example: exclude % TEMP %directory), application filters (add/remove application files) andsecurity filters (run virus scan on *.exe files).

A method for transferring data from a physical machine to a virtual harddisk is illustrated in the flowchart 100 of FIG. 2. At step 101, thetransmuter 14 receives data from a physical machine 12. The receiveddata is compared to one or more alterations templates (step 102). Thedata is altered depending on the comparison with the alterationstemplates at step 103. For example, the date may be altered by filteringthe data, altering the data or appending new information. At step 104,the altered data is transferred to a virtual hard disk for storage.

A more detailed process of the data transfer is illustrated in theflowchart 200 of FIG. 3. As an initial step 201, a physical machinecatalog is created that represents the physical machine contents for aparticular physical machine. That is, the resulting source catalog willbe a skeleton representation of the source machine. At step 202 thetransmuter uses alterations templates to tag source catalog entries thatare to be transformed. Amongst others, the alterations templates mayinclude filters, data mappings and add-on data templates. The transmuterpolls data from the physical machine using the altered source catalogentries 203. Catalog entries that were excluded are not polled. Datacorresponding to altered source catalog entries is altered accordingly.The transmuter then pushes the data (step 204) to the virtual hard diskaccording to data mappings. For example, if a drive mapping from c driveto d drive was included in the catalog building process for the physicalmachine, then the transmuter 14 will push c drive contents to the drivelocation of the virtual hard disk. At step 205, the transmuter 14 pushesnew data to the virtual hard disk using virtual hard disk catalogentries while verifying for conflicts. An example of a conflict may bewhere a source machine has the same directory path on separate drives.Example: c:\data\temp and d:\data\temp. A mapping from d to c willcreate a conflict when performing a conversion because d:\data\temp canoverwrite c:\data\temp. The mapping may have a conflict resolution thatindicates that conflict paths are mapped to a special directory on thetarget. In the example above, d:\data\temp would be transferred toc:\conflict\data\temp. The administrator can then decide what to do withall the conflict data that was transferred during the conversion.

In one embodiment, an alterations template may comprise an excludefilter that causes specified source catalog entries to be removed fromthe source catalog so that those entries are not transferred to thevirtual hard disk. For example, an exclude filter may indicate not totransfer c:\temp or files located in the recycle bin. Other examples mayinclude an exclude template that lists all internet temp datadirectories not to be transferred such asC:\Documents_and_Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temp, orC:\Documents_and_Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp.

In one embodiment, an alterations template may comprise a data mappingtemplate. The physical machine may include mappings of files,directories and drives from a source location to a target location. Thedata mapping template detects these mappings and causes the transmuter14 to transfer the target to the equivalent target location of thevirtual hard disk rather than the equivalent source location of thevirtual hard disk. That is, data mapping templates can be used totransform source catalog entries to a desired target location of thevirtual hard disk. For example, a mapping of D drive to C drive wouldproduce the following path mappings: “D:\Program File” mapped to“C:\Program Files” when moving source contents in “D:\Program File”

In one embodiment, an alterations template may comprise an add-on datatemplate that can be used to add entries and location references to avirtual hard disk template. In one example, an administrator may requireall virtual machines to have a virus scanner on all virtual machines. Atemplate can indicate an external application repository in the network.During conversion, the applications files such as the required virusscanner installation files are retrieved from the repository andinstalled in the new virtual machines as part of the conversion process.

The catalog entries may be organized into category types, for exampleincluding categories for system files, configuration settings, userfiles etc. In one embodiment, the alterations template may act onparticular categories of catalog entries. For example, particular systemfiles and/or configuration files might be removed to avoid duplicationor might be modified to include a standardized set of configurationsettings and parameters.

Typically, all user files will be transferred without changes to thedata. However, many program files, libraries, system files etc which arerequired to be individually stored on each physical machine may not berequired for each instance of a virtual machine. Such files may beremoved or altered to include a mapping to a shared instance of the fileon the virtual machine that might be shared across multiple virtual harddisks. In addition, the types of filters described above can eliminateunnecessary and unsecure properties from being transferred.

The components of the system 10 may be embodied in hardware, software,firmware or a combination of hardware, software and/or firmware. In ahardware embodiment, the transmuter application may be executed on adevice, such as a computer, etc including a processor 61 operativelyassociated with a memory 62 as shown in FIG. 4. The memory 62 may storeinstructions that are executable on the processor 61. An instruction set300 that may be executed on the processor 61 is depicted in theflowchart of FIG. 5. Specifically, when executed, the instruction set300 allows the processor to receive contents of a physical hard disk(step 301) and transform the contents (step 302) such as by applying oneor more alterations templates from the memory 62 to the contents. Theprocessor may then store the transformed contents in a virtual hard disk(step 303). The virtual hard disk may be provided in part by the memory62.

The transmuter processor 61 may communicate with a processor 71 of aphysical machine as shown in FIG. 6 through a suitable communicationslink 65. The physical machine may have a physical hard disk, such asmemory 72, from which the hard disk contents can be retrieved.

Although embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated inthe accompanied drawings and described in the foregoing description, itwill be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodimentsdisclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications, andsubstitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as setforth and defined by the following claims. For example, the capabilitiesof the invention can be performed fully and/or partially by one or moreof the blocks, modules, processors or memories. Also, these capabilitiesmay be performed in the current manner or in a distributed manner andon, or via, any device able to provide and/or receive information.Further, although depicted in a particular manner, various modules orblocks may be repositioned without departing from the scope of thecurrent invention. Still further, although depicted in a particularmanner, a greater or lesser number of modules and connections can beutilized with the present invention in order to accomplish the presentinvention, to provide additional known features to the presentinvention, and/or to make the present invention more efficient. Also,the information sent between various modules can be sent between themodules via at least one of a data network, the Internet, an InternetProtocol network, a wireless source, and a wired source and viaplurality of protocols.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: comparing data to at leastone alterations template selected from an alterations template poolcomprising a plurality of alterations templates; tagging catalog entriesof contents of a physical machine to be altered based on informationincluded in the at least one alterations template; comparing the catalogentries to the at least one alterations template; altering the datacorresponding to the tagged source catalog entries in accordance withthe at least one alterations template, wherein the altering the datacomprises removing at least one source catalog entry from the contentsof the physical machine catalog entries; and storing the altered data ina virtual hard disk.
 2. The method according to claim 1, comprisingreceiving the data from the physical machine.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, comprising polling data from the physical machine using thetagged source catalog entries.
 4. The method according to claim 1wherein the at least one alterations template comprises at least oneexclude filter, wherein data matching the at least one exclude filter isexcluded from the altered data.
 5. The method according to claim 1wherein the at least one alterations template comprises at least onedata mapping template, wherein data matching the at least one datamapping template is stored in a location of the virtual hard disk thatis equivalent to a target location of the data mapping of the physicalmachine.
 6. The method according to claim 1 wherein the at least onealterations template comprises at least one add-on data template,wherein data matching the at least one add-on data template is alteredto include additional data.
 7. The method according to claim 6 whereinthe additional data comprises one or more additional entries.
 8. Themethod according to claim 6 wherein the additional data comprises one ormore additional location references.
 9. A system, comprising: at leastone transmuter; and at least one datastore that stores a plurality offiltering parameters; wherein the at least one transmuter is configuredto convert physical hard disk data to virtual hard disk data inaccordance with one or more of the plurality of filtering parameters ofat least one alterations template selected from an alterations templatepool comprising a plurality of alterations templates; tag catalogentries of contents of a physical machine to be altered based oninformation included in the at least one alterations template; comparethe catalog entries to the at least one alterations template; and alterthe data corresponding to the tagged source catalog entries inaccordance with the at least one alterations template by removing atleast one source catalog entry from the contents of the physical machinecatalog entries.
 10. The system according to claim 9 wherein the atleast one transmuter is configured to: determine one or more conflictpaths; and map the one or more conflict paths to a specified directoryon a target virtual hard disk.
 11. The system according to claim 9wherein the at least one transmuter is configured to transfer thephysical hard disk data to a virtual hard disk.
 12. The system accordingto claim 9 wherein the datastore stores a plurality of filter templates,each filter template comprising one or more of the filtering parameters.13. The system according to claim 12 comprising a management consolethat is configured to allow a user to select one or more of thefiltering templates to apply to a physical hard disk.
 14. The systemaccording to claim 9 wherein the plurality of filtering parameterscomprise at least one exclude filter.
 15. The system according to claim14 wherein the exclude filter is configured to exclude one or moretemporary directories from the physical hard disk.
 16. The systemaccording to claim 14 wherein the exclude filter is configured toexclude any recycle bin files from the physical hard disk.
 17. Thesystem according to claim 9 wherein the at least one transmuter isconfigured to generate a catalog of contents of the physical hard disk.18. The system according to claim 9 wherein the at least one transmuteris configured to poll data from the physical machine using the taggedsource catalog entries.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium comprising computer-executable instructions for execution by aprocessor, that, when executed, cause a processor to: tag catalogentries of contents of a physical hard disk to be altered based oninformation included in at least one alterations template; poll datafrom the physical hard disk using the tagged source catalog entries;compare the catalog entries to at least one alterations template;transforming the contents to produce transformed contents; transfer thetransformed contents to a virtual hard disk; and alter the datacorresponding to the tagged source catalog entries in accordance withthe at least one alterations template by removing at least one sourcecatalog entry from the contents of the physical machine catalog entries.20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according toclaim 19 comprising instructions that cause the processor to exclude oneor more files from the transformed contents such that the one or moreexcluded files are not transferred to the virtual hard disk.